The First Weeks of School

The first quarter of the year science labs have taken place in sixth, fifth, second and kindergarten. Sixth grade has focused on light and sound waves. Labs have included a variety of experiences with seeing, feeling and hearing waves. Today was the final lab where students attempted to dart an escaped dinosaur that had been recently cloned with a laser dart gun (laser pointer). Students learned concepts of angle of incidence, angle of reflection, incidence ray and reflected ray using mirrors to reflect the laser beam to "dart" their dinosaur. Fifth grade is finishing up their unit on gravitational forces. Labs have included ones on pendulums, falling objects, paper rockets, and measuring friction in Newtons. They are currently wrapping all their knowledge up in a final project by supporting an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down. They have to reference three of their for labs in supporting evidence. Second grade has focused on making observations related to a problem with sinking and floating sodas. Through observations, they learned that diet soda sinks and regular soda floats. After understanding why, due to the ingredients in Pepsi, students began designing and invention to keep Pepsi cans afloat. Their goal is to analyze a few of these designs, once built, to see which would best for using when out on a canoe trip, as canoes are known to flip and no one wants to lose their refreshing drink for lunch! Kindergarten has been working on observing the sun's impact on earth. Labs dealt with setting up different cups of "Earth", which included different soils, sands, and rocks as well as cups of water representing the oceans and rivers on the planet. Using digital thermometers, students witnessed the change in temperatures based on the sun hitting it. Students also learned the term evaporation for what they observed when water "dried up" from the sun. Fading was another concept seen, as colored paper placed in the sunlight quickly (over one week) faded into the designs of the shape placed on top of it. The first quarter is well on its way into learning about key concepts within the Next Generation Science Standards!